This Time Last Year in Topps Now Part 3

(I haven't forgotten about my promised 30-team losers post yet. The turnaround for another Cubs Topps Now card was quick this time.)

Today's look back at last year's Cubs' season via Topps Now brings us a two-fer. Cards numbered 29 and 30 highlight Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta and the Cubs' 16-0 no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds.

Before we get to the cards, let me set the scene a bit.

On July 25, 2015, the Cubs were no-hit by Cole Hamels to end a streak of 7,920 consecutive games with a Cubs hit, the longest streak ever. Why am I mentioning something that happened a year and a half before this? Because after that game, the Cincinnati Reds became the owner of the longest active team hitting streak at 7,026 games.

Back to present day. Errr, I mean a year ago today. The Reds' streak has been extended to 7,109 games.

The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, Jake Arrieta is taking the mound for the Cubs. He picked up where he left off, beginning the new season 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA.

Kris Bryant was coming off a Rookie of the Year season but hadn't quite kicked in to his MVP groove yet.

The Cubs as a team were atop the National League Central with a an 11-3 record. The Reds were in a tie for 2nd place with a respectable-because-it's-still-early 8-7 record. And no I'm not saying that because its the current Cubs situation, ha! I'm saying it because in 2015, the top three records in baseball came out of the NL Central and did not include the Reds.

The previous afternoon, the Reds had walked-off the Colorado Rockies. The Cubs had dropped one to the Cardinals after an uncharacteristic bumpy start from Kyle Hendricks.

Even though the Cubs regularly brought in 40,000+ fans at Wrigley and visiting ballparks throughout the season, this game had an official attendance of only 16,497.

And then the fun began.

Dexter Fowler led off the game with a double (You Go, We Go). After a Jason Heyward strike out, Kris Bryant put the Cubs on the board with his 3rd home run of the season. Fast forward through Ben Zobrist, David Ross and Anthony Rizzo home runs (among other scoring), Bryant hit a one-out grand slam in the top of the 7th to bring the score to 13-0. Not to mention his two other singles and runs scored.

As the back of the card mentions, despite this offensive output, he was overshadowed by Jake Arrieta's no-hitter.

Speaking of which...

Card #30 focuses on Arrieta's 2nd career no-hitter. His previous one came on August 30, 2015 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, just 9 starts prior. Only Johnny Vander Meer (back-to-back starts) and Warren Spahn (5) had fewer starts between no-hitters.

So while his offense was plowing through Cincinnati pitching, Arrieta was doing the same to their hitters. The only Reds baserunners were due to four walks, but Arrieta faced just two more than the minimum. Joey Votto was picked off 1st base in the 4th inning and a 7th inning double play cancelled out another.

Including this game, Arrieta was 15-0 with a 0.53 ERA (and two no-hitters) in his previous 16 starts. This was the second biggest blowout no-hitter, only behind an 18-0 romp between the Buffalo Bisons and Detroit Wolverines in 1884. So yeah, kind of a big deal.

After a three no hitters in 2013, five in 2014 and modern era record tying seven no-hitters across the MLB in 2015, Arrieta's gem was the only one in 2016 and still the most recent as of this post. In fact, you have to go back to 2006 to find the previous season with only one.

Fan favorite David Ross caught the no-hitter, the first of his career. On a side note, what an amazing final season for that guy, eh? Miguel Montero had caught Arrieta's first no-hitter which was the second for him. Montero previously caught future Cub Edwin Jackson's while with the Dimanondbacks back in 2010.

The Cubs return to Great American Ballpark tonight and although Arrieta was originally scheduled to start, Jon Lester will be taking the mound.

As for these cards, Topps Now was starting to pick up some steam by now. Combine that with an actual historical feat and the buzz surrounding the Cubs and you have a perfect storm for the highest print runs to date. While the Addison Russell and John Lackey cards were a paltry 331 and 224 respectively, the Kris Bryant had a print run of 1644 and Jake Arrieta came in at 1808. Among regular season Cubs cards that ranks them as #4 and #5 in quantity and because of those numbers the value (based on eBay finished auctions) has remained relatively low.

Also of note, at this time last year, these were cards #29 & #30. For the 2017 incarnation, through games played on April 19th, there are already 65 cards. And print runs have remained under 1,000 aside for the cards commemorating the Cubs World Series banner, trophy and rings and a random Andrew Benintendi rookie card. Hmmm....

This Time Last Year in Topps Now Part 2

It’s already time for another “This Time Last Year in Topps Now” post.

A year ago today, John Lackey became the 16^th person in MLB history to have earned a victory against all 30 teams. On one hand, that sounds impressive. Thousands of pitchers over the years and only 16 have accomplished that feat?

But realistically, this could only have been done beginning in the 1998 season when the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays joined the league to make an even 30 teams. Since then, there is an average of just below one pitcher per season added to the list. When you factor in the introduction of interleague play the year before, this feat isn’t nearly as impossible as the small list implies.

In fact, less than a month after Lackey, Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals defeated his former team, the Detroit Tigers to become the 17^th person.

And as of this post, 9 more active pitchers sit on the cusp at 29 teams beaten. Among them is Lackey’s current teammate, Jake Arrieta. The only team he hasn’t beaten? The Cubs. I don’t know that Arrieta’s career will end with the Cubs but here’s hoping!

Despite what the back of the card tells us, I would hardly say this list contains all-time greats aside from the already mentioned Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

I guess Barry Zito was a Cy Young winner and a couple of other guys had All-Star selections. Maybe Scherzer eventually, but his feat was after this card so they weren't thinking about him. Two characteristics specifically jump out at me when scrolling down this list of names. Team hopping or longevity. Or in the case of most, both.

However, I don’t mean to poo-poo all over this stat, as it really is quite an accomplishment. So let’s take a look at how Lackey got there.

In his MLB career, Lackey spent 8 seasons with the Angels, 3 ½ with the Red Sox, 1 ½ with the Cardinals and the past season plus with the Cubs. Here are the teams in order of his first win against them.

Dodgers 6/30/2002

Mariners 7/26/2002

Tigers 8/5/2002

Blue Jays 8/10/2002

Indians 8/16/2002

(Devil) Rays 8/27/2002

Orioles 9/1/2002

Rangers 9/26/2002

A’s 4/11/2003

Yankees 5/13/2003

Phillies 6/10/2003

Twins 7/13/2003

Cubs 6/11/2004

White Sox 7/6/2004

Royals 8/24/2004

Rockies 6/26/2006

Red Sox 7/30/2006

Reds 6/13/2007

Mets 6/17/2008

Nationals 6/23/2008

Giants 6/15/2009

Angels 5/5/2010

Diamondbacks 6/17/2010

Brewers 6/17/2011

Astros 4/28/2013

Padres 7/2/2013

Braves 5/28/2014

Pirates 8/25/2014

Marlins 8/15/2015

Cardinals 4/18/2016

Although it took a couple of tries for Lackey to beat some of the teams, there was no way he could have done this any sooner because 4/18/2016 was the first time he faced the Cardinals in his career.


As with the Addison Russell card, this one has a short print run (shortest among all Cubs cards at 244 copies) and the value has skyrocketed. Also like the Russell card, I picked this one up on the secondary market originally for less than the $10 list price.

I did a quick search but I couldn’t find any readily available data about pitchers who have lost to all 30 teams. I thought that would be an easier feat to accomplish seeing as you only need to face one batter to get a loss but face 15+ as a starter to get a win. But on the flip side, such futility might not yield the opportunity to continue to lose.

Certainly the guys on the winner list have the appearance count to have made it happen but I’m too lazy to look them all up individually. Lackey, for the record, has only lost to 27 teams, remaining undefeated against Diamondbacks, Mets and Nationals.

*Edit: Had some time to kill so looked up a few of the other guys on the list. More on that in a day or two.

Niche Collection Updates

I figured if I was going to try to jump back into this whole blogging thing, I should do a little blog maintenance. I've eliminated a few tabs up top while I do some updates but the ones I've left behind are up to date as of this post.


I haven't picked up very many cards in the past 12-18 months aside from Topps Now, but I didn't stop completely. I kept my eBay Saved Searches alive so every once in a while I would get a notice on something I was looking for.


First up is the 1991 Topps Desert Shield parallel team set. With a few pickups, I currently have 31 of the 32 Cubs cards. (I am not counting the Keith Comstock error card because even though it declares him to be a Cub, he never was.)

The lone holdout for this set is #740 Ryne Sandberg's regular card. There are some available so it's more a matter of finding one at a good price and in a condition I'm happy with. The centering on these cards has been my biggest issue.

As for my other goal with this set, of the 31 cards I have, 8 of them are signed. Now that I am oh-so-close to having them all, I hope to focus on getting more autographed. The tab above is up to date, minus scans of the Shawon Dunston and Greg Smith cards.

Next up is the stalled out Tony Campana PC. He is currently a free agent and hasn't seen the big leagues since 2014. Hence the lack of any newer cards being produced. I did manage to track down a 2014 minor league issue from his time with the Reno Aces, doing what Tony does best. Running.

Campana split 2016 between the AAA clubs of the Washington Nationals (Syracuse Chiefs) and Chicago White Sox (Charlotte Knights). As far as I know, I'm just looking for a few parallels and printing plates.

I'm putting an APB out for:

2009 Tristar Projections #29 various parallels (have base)

2011 Topps Update #US57 Canary Yellow Diamond and any printing plates

2012 Topps #580 Toys R Us Purple, Wood, Platinum and any Printing Plates

2012 Panini Prizm Blue #95

Click the tab above to see most if not all of what I have, including some autographs.

The Ivy Frankenset is coming along and I'll have Page 2 posted soon, but no further updates at the moment!

What a Difference a Year Makes...

It is a wonder how time flies.

It's been just over 4 months since I last posted and the topic du jour was a recap of my whirlwind trip to see the Chicago Cubs victory parade.

Tonight, the Cubs will get their championship rings before their game against the Dodgers. The night before last, the Cubs had their home opener where the championship banner was raised and the evening culminated in a walk-off victory. Topps Now created three cards to commemorate the events.

Confession time.

I went down the rabbit hole last year and picked up all of the Topps Now cards that featured Cubs. Since I fell off the radar blog-wise and missed doing the look-what-I-picked-up posts like I had planned, I thought it might be a fun trip down memory lane with a simple "this time last year" style write-up.

I'm a day late for this post, but a year ago yesterday, the Cubs earned their first Topps Now card. (Considering it went on sale a year ago today, maybe I'm not late?)

#14 Addison Russell

As I mentioned, I missed this card when it was originally released. Topps Now was still fairly new (this is card #14) and the $9.99 price point kept the print runs relatively small. About a month later, I picked this one up for less than that. Bulk orders through Topps brought prices down with savings that trickled to the secondary market while still allowing eBay sellers to potentially make a small profit.

The print run for this card is listed as 331 copies, one of the lowest for Cubs cards (3rd or 5th lowest depending on what you consider Cubs cards). The lowest Cubs card was 244.

Topps Now eventually picked up some steam, with many cards breaking the 1000+ mark. Fast forward to today and with this limited run and the success the Cubs had, you'll be hard pressed to find one of these for under $100. Crazy. I wish they all had that ROI rate!

However, the ingenuity of the set may have worn off for its sophomore season as print runs in general are much lower. We're about 30 cards in (again, compared to only 14 this time last year?) and two already have lower print runs than last year's all-time low of 178 and less than half have surpassed the total of this card's 331! Four cards have broken 500 and only one of those has gone over 1000.

Maybe it was a lightning in a bottle thing? Maybe things will pick up again as the season rolls on? Or maybe the secondary market dried up causing bulk buyers to bail? Time will tell.

But let's get back to this card and what was going on last year...

The synopsis on the back of the card hits most of the high points but to fill in the blanks:

The Cubs were no-hit through 6 2/3 and down 3-0. David Ross broke up the no-no with a single. Two walks later, Jason Heyward plated two runs with a single of his own. Following a walk and hit by pitch in the 8th, Addison Russell propelled the Cubs to a 5-3 victory with the depicted 3-run home run. Five runs on three hits.

Jon Lester was the Cubs starter but Adam Warren (remember his Cubs stint??) vultured the win with a scoreless 8th.

I think Topps Now was still finding its groove at this point as there's nothing particularly spectacular here. In fact, had the Reds held on, starting Reds pitcher Brandon Finnegan may have earned a card for his late no-hit bid. Maybe it was a boring day around the league?

At this point though, the Cubs were now 6-1 and Topps probably felt they needed to be recognized. Comparatively, this year the Cubs are 5-2 and have 5 cards already (though to be fair, two of them recognize the home opener ceremonies of raising the championship banner and trophy presentation).

The next Topps Now post won't be for another week or so but I hope to have another post or two in the meantime. Hopefully, I still have some followers!

Cubs Championship Parade Do-Over (Videos)

So apparently when I made my parade recap post on Saturday, my videos loaded as pictures. Now that I've rested up a bit, I took the time to redo them and add them here. Again, apologies for some of the camerawork but there was some jostling and screaming among the couple of fans who showed up.

Budweiser Clydesdales:

Clark the Mascot:

Giant World Series Trophy:

Mounted Police and First Bus (Families?)

Ricketts:

Alumni (Sandberg, Billy Williams, Dernier? Kerry Wood?)

Executives (Theo, Jed):

Coaches:

Soler & Montero front, Almora middle, Contreras back:

Final video, several buses at once. Arrieta, Schwarber, Montgomery and La Stella in first bus. Russell, Hendricks, Cahill, Edwards and Grimm (& someone next to him) in second bus. Bryant, Heyward, Fowler and Rizzo in third bus. And the final bus in Lackey, Ross, Travis Wood, Ross and World Series trophy:

Cubs Championship Parade

It's been a while since I last posted, no? What a fitting previous post though with a breakdown of Kyle Hendricks' Topps card. Several times during the post season run I thought about posting but couldn't think of anything to say other than exclaim how exciting everything was. And frustrating. And exciting again! And frustrating again. And then an unbelievable Game 7! Exhausting!

And if I wasn't tired enough, my older son convinced me to drive from Virginia to Chicago for the parade on Friday. At 7 PM Thursday night. We were on the road within an hour and drove through the night. We took toll roads that shaved about 90 minutes off the trip and gaining an hour switching to Central Time helped as well.

Thank goodness for smart phones. As spontaneous as this trip was, we were able to do a little planning on the way. We prepaid for parking about a mile and half from the park where the parade was to end and the rally was to be held so we had a guaranteed spot when we rolled up just before 6 AM local time. At this point it was still dark out and we were exhausted so we set some alarms and took a quick hour nap in the car. We didn't think we had any chance of being near the front anyway so might as well sleep some of the funk away.

I grew a WGN Cubs fan (military brat) and am not a Chicago native so I don't know my way around the city at all. It took a half mile before we saw anybody else in Cubs gear. I was starting to get nervous we weren't anywhere near where we needed to be. But the closer we got, the bluer it got.

There were several of these bridges full of Cubs fans waiting to get into the park. There was a bag check area we were funneled into which bottle-necked things a bit but it really wasn't too bad considering the volume. 

After we cleared the bridge, I turned around to take a quick photo of the crowd following us. At this point, we had to decide whether to head for the area where the rally was being held or find a post along the parade route. Soooo many people were headed for the rally and we found a great spot for the parade (we hoped).

This was my view for the next couple of hours while we waited for the parade to start. There was a giant TV across the way broadcasting a local news program that was showing everything that was going on at Wrigley Field so that was entertaining at least. Several times over that span, small groups attempted to climb the trailer that held the TV but they were booed off by the crowd (it messed with the TV and scrambled the signal). In my experience, the police were very present but I did not not see any altercations.

There were a couple of ladies in front of us along the fence but none above 5 feet tall so it did end up being perfect! By the time the parade started, the crowd was easily 25-30 deep behind us.

There were a bunch of trolleys that came through but I have no idea who was on them. Speculation among the crowd around us was they were Cubs employees and/or sponsors. I did take some videos but I didn't see anything worth posting.

Next up were the Budweiser Clydesdale horse, with dalmatian. At any other parade, I would have been more impressed. But bring on the Cubs! Haha

This was the first time I had ever seen Clark, the fairly new mascot in real life. I never caught a glimpse of him at Wrigley. As you can see in the video, he clearly pointed directly at me and made my day.

A few more trolleys and then a giant replica World Series trophy in the back of a pickup.

Some mounted police before the double decker buses appeared.

 I couldn't make out anybody on that first bus, but the second one was lead by the face of the ownership group, Tom Ricketts.

The next bus featured two Hall of Fame alumni. As you can tell from the shouting, Ryne Sandberg was recognized first but Billy Williams was there too.

There was another bus without anybody recognizable from my video but then the bus after that had the executives. Theo got some big cheers!

Followed by the coaches:

And finally some players:

Jorge Soler in the front, Albert Almora in the middle and a very brief glimpse of Willson Contreras in the back.

At this point, I was lost in enjoying the moment (as I should have been) and the video quality got way worse. I did manage a few decent photos as the other buses past.

After the parade, we didn't even try to get near the rally. But all around the park were more of those large TVs (jumbotrons?) and we were able to relax and watch the rally from there.

We walked around a little after that and were back to our car and on our way back home by 4 PM. There was a little traffic on the way out of town (shocker I know) but not too bad considering. We drove to Merrillville, IN, where we stayed on our recent road trip, had dinner, and drove the rest of the way home. We rolled back into Fairfax, VA at 6:30 AM Saturday morning. What a whirlwind 36 hours!

I took a nap, read some recaps of the events (5 million people?!?) and decided to make this post so I had it for posterity.

Time to defend the title!

How long until pitchers and catchers report??

2016 Topps #314 Kyle Hendricks

In a rotation with reigning National League Cy Young award winner Jake Arrieta and former vote getters/All-stars/World Series champs John Lackey and Jon Lester, it would be easy to get lost in the shuffle. But Kyle Hendricks is quietly making a name for himself as he methodically shuts down the opposition.

I've been comparing his stuff to Greg Maddux all season long to anybody that would listen. Not overpowering, but very effective, able to hits his spots. And in return, I get those looks like I'm crazy. In April and May, he was piling up losses when the Cubs were on pace to match/break the team Wins record. The team run differential was ridiculous, but a month ago Hendricks had just a .500 record. It seemed liked every game he pitched, the Cubs forgot how to hit.

Right now, he has the second lowest ERA in the Majors (while Clayton Kershaw preserves his "lead" on the DL). Tonight, he starts in Colorado so we'll see if he can't keep the damage to a minimum against the only team with more runs scored this season than the Cubs. Hopefully the Cubs bats keep pace in that thin air as well.

#314 Kyle Hendricks

I'd like this shot a whole lot better if it was zoomed out a little more to include the whole glove. I know some people think criticizing the "amputations" are a bit nit-picky, but I likes what I likes. Whatever the green blob in the background is gives the Cubs red, white and blue a nice pop.

The staredown at the beginning of Hendricks' windup is much better than the exertion faces we've been getting a lot of from Topps lately.

Did I mention Hendricks was flying under the radar? Over at Getty Images, a search of "Hendricks Wrigley 2015" yielded just 114 results. And unfortunately, the first 20 or so (sorted by most recent) are from the NLCS against the Mets and mostly feature Daniel Murphy. He must have had a good game or two, I don't remember...

The green blob helped narrow this down as there were a couple other similar photos.

Of note (to me anyway) was the one above from a day game against the Giants on August 8th. I was at Wrigley on the 6th for that same series. The Cubs had a 4-game sweep of the Giants and took possession of the second Wild Card spot after that. Good times.

But anyway, back to the actual source photo. From the caption:

Kyle Hendricks #28 of the Chicago Cubs prepares to eliver the ball against the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field on May 26, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.

How do you "eliver" a ball? Is that an interwebs thing? Oh wait, I'm getting distracted again.

Not much to go on so we'll have to go the boxscore.

A Cubs walk-off win, their 5th of 13 last year. Woo-hoo!

As you can see by his line, a recurring problem for Hendricks' personal Won-Loss record has been lack of run support. He pitched 7 innings, gave up just four hits (one for a solo home run) and a walk but got a no decision. That's a WHIP of less than 1.

 

The game winner was an Addison Russell 2-out double which is linked here.

 

The card gets a B grade from me. Would have been an A if cropped properly. An autograph would look great scrawled across his jersey too!